Page 38 of Taken to Voraxia
Raku presses a button on the holo screen and the security shield retracts. The sensation of warmth hits me like an enveloping kiss.
Again, I’m unable to sensor myself before voicing my curiosity out loud. “How is this possible?”
I’m nearly panting, arms covered immediately in a thin sheen of sweat. I feel lightheaded too and wonder if the oxygen content of this planet’s atmosphere isn’t greater than it was on the colony. The scarcity of trees there compared to the density of them here would yield itself to that possibility.
“I fail to understand what it is that you are referring to.”
“The raised temperature. It was cold above the canopy, which is so dense it doesn’t let it in any sunlight. It shouldn’t be this warm.”
“Voraxia has a reien farrn core. You discovered reien farrn in the device you built on my ship. In its molten form it acts as an energy source. In its solid form, it is a naturally heated rock. The canopy traps that heat near the planet’s surface.”
My wheels are turning and I’m sure there’s a stupid grin on my face. I try to marshal it when I see him staring at me out of the corner of his eye. When I glance his way, he straightens and jumps over the glider’s raised edge.
“Come,” he says, and not in a way that garners discussion, but that forces my feet forward. It’s a body’s length down — mine, thankfully, not his — and I expect him to help me down like he tried to help me up, but he doesn’t.
He just stands a few paces away with his body angled to the side, gaze surveying the copse of trees surrounding this little clearing like he’s waiting for someone to appear.
I’m about to tease him about it, since there is clearly no one in sight, when suddenly two of the trees on the far end of the sandy gladeopen. Pale tan doorways shift to the side, like the doors on the ship, and Voraxians pour out of them, three men and two women.
Immediately, my eyes are drawn to the female who approaches Xoran first. The differences between our bodies are noticeable and I immediately feel self-conscious.
Growing up, seeing so many pretty girls with their big puffy hair and their dark brown skin, who looked nothing like me…I never liked the way I looked. At least until now…with him watching me like I’m the sun to his universe.Or maybe it’s just the Xanaxana.I wince at the thought.
The approaching Voraxians drop to their knees and something painful constricts in my chest as Xoran, in all his majesty, approaches the female kneeling slightly in front of the rest.She’s so beautiful, alien that she is.
“Raku,” the female breathes, “It gives us no greater pleasure than to receive you home. Voraxia has felt your absence.”
“Rise, Ixria. You honor me with your words.”Ixria. He knows her name. He knows her. Maybe she’s one of his other females. Does he have other females? Why do I care?The pain in my chest intensifies and I rub at it with the heel of my palm.
“It is we who are honored.” She stands, unfolding gracefully in long, elegant limbs. She is a slightly darker color than Xoran but has the same straight, jet black hair shared by the Voraxians crowded behind her. There are about eight now.
None of them are wearing tops, so I can see every detail of her perfectly flat stomach and chest. She doesn’t have breasts like I do, and I’m surprised to see the same hard plates there that Xoran has. The only difference are what look like slightly raised, but tough, nipples.
She doesn’t have hips to speak of, whereas mine are broad and smooth out into thick thighs, and her face is elongated as well, with bright black slanted eyes that nearly extend all the way back to touch her hairline. Eyes that abruptly switch to me with something that Xoran has said.
Her ridges flare bright yellow then, startling me. Immediately the woman drops back to her knees — and so do all of the Voraxians behind her. When she rises, her gaze hits mine unforgivingly and her voice is oddly…reverent?
“You honor us deeply Raku, that we might be among the first to lay eyes on our Rakukanna. Rakukanna, we beg of your forgiveness for our impoliteness. We had not recognized you for who you are.”
Xoran twists to look at me and I don’t know what he wants because his expression is unreadable. All I know is that I don’t like this strange adulation at all and I feel the sweat that had already been drying up against my skin return in a rush.
“You um…”Great. So elegant, Miari…“You don’t have to kneel. You can rise.”
The woman doesn’t do so immediately, but seems to hesitate, like she’s not sure what I’m really saying. Which is fair, because I’m a stuttering idiot. The moment she does, she locks eyes with me and it’s like pulling teeth not to look away under the intensity. Because past her, I can feel that they’reallstaring.
“Thank you, Rakukanna.”
“No problem, Icks-ree-uh?” I try pronouncing the word that Xoran called her, but I can tell that it comes twisted out of my mouth. I glance towards Xoran and he’s no help at all. “I don’t know if I’m saying that right.”
She smiles. “It is as you say it.”
I smile back and laugh a little bit. “You liar.”
The woman’s ridges flare bright white and then a pale, sickly hue. I quickly stammer, “Nox, I didn’t mean…to insult you. I…meant it as a joke.”
“Of course, Rakukanna.” Another little bow. “I understand,” she says, lying again.
“My name is…”
